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A half an hour before Wednesday’s pre-season home opener, the Star’s Doug Smith broke the most depressing basketball story in … well, ever.

The Chicken is gone for the year. He blew out his Achilles in Halifax.

You could make a pretty good argument that the Chicken (a.k.a. The Raptor) is this franchise’s standout performer. He’s a Canadian all-star. A 19-year veteran. Doesn’t have off years. Appreciates our TV selection.

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There have been nights — oh God, so many nights — when the only reason to stick around past the third quarter was to see the Inflatable Raptor ‘eat’ security guards on the sideline.

We’re not sure what he’s paid. We’re sure it’s not enough.

“My daughter cried,” coach Dwane Casey said of the news.

She’s won’t be the last one.

The Raptor has never been named in this publication. In the spirit of streaks and good wishes, we won’t do so today. But send him some anonymous love. Unlike so many others involved in this organization, he’s never let you down.

Which segues us nicely to the guys on the court.

We’re two games in. Two meaningless contests against two vastly different teams. In general, the Timberwolves had their way with Toronto. They won 101-89.

The illustrative battle of the night saw Jonas Valanciunas being routinely rag-dolled by Nikola Pekovic.

Pekovic looks as if he were built out of body parts in a lab somewhere, so there’s no shame in a lighter man being unable to wrestle with him. However, it reinforces the fact that the Lithuanian is still on the uphill part of his learning curve. If you’re counting on Valanciunas to carry this team this year, you should buy yourself a jar of jelly beans and count those instead. It’ll give you more joy.

If there was a standout on the night it was DeMar DeRozan.

It has been DeRozan’s habit in the past to eschew the lane to the basket as soon as he spots an inch of human flesh between him and it. Last night, he moved to the rim with purpose, while also displaying improved shooting confidence. His 17 points on only seven shots led the team.

Another plus was the emerging vocals of Rudy Gay. Last year, the only people Gay talked to on the court were the refs, and only to complain. Last night, he twice took aside other players for spirited, apparently warm-hearted chats during timeouts. If Gay has decided that he wants to invest more than a nightly shift in this team, that augurs well.

Also, let’s jump on the Tyler Hansbrough bandwagon. Can the new arrival make a difference? Well, probably not in any macro basketball sense. But he’s already a crowd favourite, perhaps because he plays every bit as demented as his reputation.

At one point, Steve Novak spotted up in the corner for a three, and then thought better of it. With no warning, he whipped the ball under the basket, where Hansbrough was wearing his marker like a coat.

The ball caught Hansbrough entirely surprise. With his opponent still riding his back, Hansbrough took the time to stare a hole in Novak, who eventually put his hands up in apology. On the scale of ‘withering,’ that look was somewhere between killing plants and killing people.

And since we’re listing things, let’s also point out the offensive efficiency of the starting unit. They shot 58 per cent for the game.

Then there was everything else.

The defence was slipshod, especially when the second unit came on. Terrence Ross has reverted to his earlier chuck’em incarnation — 10 shots, 7 points. A warning if you’re going to Ross’s house for Thanksgiving. Don’t wait for him to pass the food.

The players competing for fringe spots — Dwight Buycks, D.J. Augustin — failed to distinguish themselves. Landry Fields looks a long way from rediscovering his shooting form following major arm surgery last season.

“We have a whole group of good teachers,” Casey said beforehand of his new coaching staff. “We’re still in the teaching stage, whether we like it or not.”

If he’s asking us to choose, then ‘Not.’

It is still very, very early days, but there’s nothing we’ve yet seen that would suggest that this team is going to be anything but the one we’d all expected.

Not very bad, and not surprisingly good. Somewhere in the middle — and not the hopeful, Goldilocks sort.

What’s required now is some unexpected luck. Losing a mascot that was — quietly, and behind the scenes — a central member of the Raptors family was not the way to start things.

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